The masters program in HCI at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
USA, has a joint program with the University of Madeira, Portugal and we
offer a joint project class where the students are dong an extended, 8-
to 12-month project. They need to present their preliminary designs
simultaneously to both groups and get feedback from both groups. Last
year, our video conferencing equipment was not up to the task -- too low
quality, too many drop-outs in transmission, and far too hard to set up
and maintain (we have no staff to do that, nor budget to hire video-tech
staff).
I don't want to go to video conference vendors uninformed because their
motivation is to sell me _something_ and they'll probably tell me what I
want to hear.
So I am looking for an "existence proof" from this community.
Has anyone had a _good_ experience doing design presentations and crit
over a distance? If so, can you tell me what equipment facilitated the
interaction (not just video conferencing -- any technology, phone,
screen sharing, electronic whiteboard, etc.)
Our physical and budgetary requirements:
1. The group size ranges from 15 to 30 people in one room
2. There are usually 2 sites, but for 3 months of the project, there are
3 sites, so it has to handle at least 3 sites.
3. It must be easy to set up because there is often a class in the room
before this class and we have at most 10 minutes of set-up.
4. It must have reliable transmission across the continental US and
across the Atlantic.
5. It can't require a technical staff -- no budget for that --
intelligent computer-saavy faculty must be able to get this to work and
keep it working!
Both good and bad examples are most welcome (we have to know what to
stay away from as well as what might be good candidates).
Thanks so much,
Bonnie
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